Shichikyoochi Ruins

This estate is located in a picturesque part on the eastern side of the Mitarai district. The estate belonged to the Tada family, whose members served as town elders and village headmen at the end of the Edo period. Today, the estate is a maintained as a rest area and museum. “Shichikyo-ochi (the exile of the Seven Nobles)” refers to the incident where seven anti-shogunato court nobles including Sanjo Sanetomi were chased out of Kyoto and fled to Choshu after a coup d'etat in 1863 by a more moderate faction advocating for Kobu-Gattai (unification of the Imperial court and the Shogunato). The following year, the group of nobles, now five in number but still dreaming of returning to Kyoto, spent a night in this very estate. In 1940, the estate was designated a Historic Site by Hiroshima Prefecture.